Battle Log

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong on Tuesday June 9nd from 1030 - 1200

It was a mixed weather day with mixed results for outreach. It weather in genetral was over cast and cold with intermittent dripping rains and short sunny intervals. It basically drove every one mad as such the gentral mood for a chat was in average low. But God's grace was sufficient as He firstly withold rains during my ministry time. The ground was still wet with scattered rain fall. God also guided me to have several effective cheat with a mainklander from Shanghai who is a nonbeleivers but still open for the gospel conversation. Then next was an Aussie who was open for a chat before the bus arrived. After that I had a longer chat with and Australia born Korea who claimed to be from a Christian family but seemingly without assurance of salvation. It follwed by several breif and interrupted approaches to an Indian girl , then ending with a Singpore young guy who was so indifferent to the gospel. All in all, God/s Will be done especially on those who were led to have a chat with me to day.

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

This week, there were four street outreaches in Christchurch:

 

Tuesday: Roger and Graeme were in Riccarton in the late afternoon.  (By the way, Roger is continuing to lead the Tuesday outreach, while I switch to Thursday to start a new outreach on that day.)

 

Thursday: Andy and Corin joined me in Riccarton in the late afternoon.

 

Friday: Roger, Andy, John B, and Corin joined me in the city in the early afternoon.

 

Saturday: Corin joined me in Riccarton over the lunch period.

 

I’ve included a picture Roger sent me from the Tuesday outreach.  Graeme is in full swing!

 

As I arrived at the outreach location on Thursday, Andy and Corin were already there, and Andy was already into a chat (that went long).  So Corin and I decided to set up the flipchart on the other side of the street.

 

The flipchart can be great at attracting fish, but on this day, it was a bit slow - no bites.  I could see heaps of fish down a bit, by the bus stops, and so, I decided to leave the flip chart near Andy (who was still deep in conversation) and Corin and I moved out to where the fish were.  We put our tracts in our pockets and started to approach people.

 

We had a short chat with a couple of young guys, and then we found ourselves at the bus stops on the other side (I have a usual circuit I walk down both sides of Riccarton Road), where I got into a chat with a young Afghan guy.  It was a great chat.  He was a Muslim, so the conversation focused on the false ways: being good and asking for forgiveness won’t remove the punishment.  I had an opportunity to move to the gospel, and when I started talking about someone else taking our punishment, he became very adamant: Someone else can’t take our punishment.  And so I calmly replied, then we would all have to go to hell.  It was at this point that he started insisting that we would go to hell for a time, and then go to heaven.  But I pointed out that that wouldn’t be merciful. And then I showed him 2 Surahs from the Quran that say that hell will be eternal.  He was struck.  He took photos of both of my quotes so he could auto-translate them to read in his own language, and then he went very silent as he opened an app on his phone and started to hunt for some information.  He was so focused that my attempts to continue to talk to him were ignored.  That’s okay, we need to be patient.  Eventually, he gave up, and we continued to talk for a little bit more, but he hardened: “I will never stop being Muslim” – and apart from the grace of God, that’s true.  We parted on good terms.  And I’m glad he had received a gospel tract from me early in the conversation.  Maybe, under his initial hard exterior, his heart is softening?  I hope he keeps that tract.  When he is ready, it will be ready to tell him the gospel again.

 

Corin really likes the flipchart, and so, she left the conversation long before I finished to go back to it.  Later in the outreach, I snapped a shot of her using it on her own.  So good to see her growing in confidence.

 

I also encountered Andy’s daughter down at a bus stop.  She honoured me by introducing me to two of her friends from school, and the four of us were able to talk about the gospel and related questions.  It was so good!

On Friday, two of my chats stand out in my mind.

 

The first was with a Seventh-day Adventist leader.  He was excited to encounter people doing evangelism, but then, he became really angry when I started evangelising him.  He couldn’t give me a straight answer to my question: “Do you have to be good to get to heaven?”  Instead of reasoning with my argument, he started attacking me by saying I wasn’t listening to him (I was, I just wanted to talk about the deeper issue he was avoiding).  In the end, I had to walk away.

 

But then I encountered 2 engineers (1 mechanical and the other software).  With a technical background myself, I love talking to engineers – we seem to click when it comes to logic.  So, using logic alone, I was able to explain the gospel.  The mechanical engineer was humble enough to say he couldn’t fault the logic (very rare), but he wasn’t currently willing to accept it.  What a great chat that was!

 

The team had a robust conversation about “the sinner's prayer” over coffee afterwards.  Iron sharpening Iron!

 

Saturday was really warm!  It was like summer in the middle of winter!

 

I had a fascinating chat with a young man who was using very Catholic language, and yet he claimed to be going to a Christian church close to the university.  The longer the chat went, the more Catholic he seemed.  I was trying to work out where he had learned the language he was using (mortal sin, Eucharist, penance, etc), but he wasn’t willing to tell me.  It fascinated me that he was both engaged in the conversation and yet at the same time didn’t want to be there.  In the end, I let him go.

 

Corin continues to grow.  I took a couple of great pics of her sharing the law and the gospel with a young guy.

 

Glory to God alone!

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Okay, last week's monthly report was a bit crazy, trying to dump all the chats from the last month into a single hour-long report.  So, I’m going to try going back to weekly reports.  This report will cover the street work for the week just completed.

 

I was on the streets of Christchurch four times this week:

 

On Thursday afternoon, Corin joined me at the corner of Riccarton and Rotherham (and Roger and Graeme were also there on Tuesday afternoon).

 

On Friday afternoon, Corin, Andy, Roger, John Langan, and I were in the city.

 

On Saturday lunchtime, Corin joined me again at the corner of Riccarton and Rotherham.

 

And then finally, I went back out to the city this afternoon (Sunday) after my local church's morning gathering.

 

On Thursday, it was a bit slow initially, and then very busy.  I had a long chat with a young Muslim (but it started as a conversation with a group), and Corin was handling the flip chart on her own while that was happening.

 

The young Muslim started by saying he would go to heaven because he had asked for forgiveness.  That obviously doesn’t make sense, so I gently pushed back, which caused him to become very engaged in the conversation.

 

The key issue is that we both agree God is just, and we both agree that God is merciful.  So the question that has to be answered is, how can God be both just and merciful toward us (at the same time) so we can go to heaven?

 

Sadly, the young man kept going back to the same answer over and over: “You simply ask for forgiveness; God can overlook sin if he wants to, because he is God”.  The problem with this answer is that it is merciful, but it’s not just.  And so, the correct answer is: “Jesus died on the cross to satisfy our justice, so that God gives us mercy without compromising his justice”.

 

And the fact that he kept cycling back to his logically incorrect answer is because that’s what he has been told over and over, to the point that he has suppressed the logic we all share.  I had to gently end the conversation, pointing out the dead-end cycle.  May he be challenged enough to be humble and honest about the logic.  The goal is not winning arguments, but lovingly having people face the truth.  May God have mercy on this young man!

 

We finished the outreach with a great chat with a young Filipino with a Christian background, but who didn't fully understand the gospel.  It was interesting because he noticed us as he went past, but he didn’t want to stop to talk. A few minutes later, he came back around the corner to talk!  God must have been tugging at his heart!

 

On Friday, Corin was with me at the corner of Cashel and Colombo.  We set up the flipchart.  Very quickly, we encountered two young, and very encouraging men.  They had a very solid grasp of the gospel, and they were passionate about sharing it.  One of them in particular was especially naturally evangelistic.

 

They stayed with us for a very long time as we got to know each other, and, as we were talking, people kept coming up to the flipchart, interested in what was happening, and so multiple real gospel conversations occurred naturally.

 

It fills my heart with joy to know the Holy Spirit is working independently of me (I mean, it’s obvious, but still), raising labourers for his glory.  I would love to work more with these young men, but that’s not up to me.  May God bless their effort!

 

Saturday was amazing!  So busy!  I set up my flipchart, and was pretty much straight into my first chat.

 

It was with a young man whose father uses a similar flipchart evangelism technique in another part of the country.  But, sadly, this young man was lacking assurance.  And it turns out he was subtly confused about what it means to ‘repent’.  He defined it as ‘turn from sin’, and when I asked him more questions, it seemed that he was defining that as, basically, ‘be good’.  So, we were able to talk this through and get everything in the right place: knowledge of Christ vs trusting Christ vs obedience to Christ.  The first and the last are so important, but don’t save - it’s critical that we get this right in our thinking.  Salvation leads to works, but works are not required for salvation.  The young man took out his phone at one point to take notes!  May he see his sin as serious, but that the grace of God is greater.  May he come to know the true assurance he can have.

 

I had three more great chats.  And then I encountered a young couple.  She has a Christian background, but my gentle check questions concerned me about her understanding of the gospel.  He wasn’t a Christian, but had tried going to a church last Sunday (I think via her prompting).  The conversation was delicate at the start, as I expected them to bolt at any moment, but gradually the conversation warmed, and then I was able to get them to come to the flipchart so we could have a full gospel conversation, which was wonderful, because I could tell they were both learning.  If they truly come to Christ, then I suspect they will have some tough decisions to make out of a desire to be obedient as a result.  But what a precious opportunity to minister.

 

Sunday’s outreach was slow, in spite of the good weather and there being lots of people.  I couldn’t get any bites for a conversation.  So, I decided to go for a wander and approach people for chats as I went.  I got 1 rejection, and then I found myself in Cathedral Square.  There was a young man relaxing, and I felt drawn to him.  I offered a tract, and was welcomed.  It was a very non-standard chat.  He was a little cryptic in his answers, so I decided to take it slow, listen hard, and wait for the right time to comment.  I was able to touch on the law and then focus on the gospel.  At one point, he became emotional as he reflected on his life – again, it was cryptic, he was saying things that hinted at something deeper that he didn’t want to reveal.  It was a good chat, and he received a couple of tracts, but then handed them back.  He said he already understood and that I should give them to someone else.  I’d rather he keep them, but I respected his wishes.  Seed planted?  Only God knows.

 

May he use our feeble efforts for his glory!  Thank you for your prayers!!

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

For the month of May, I decided to write short notes of my most memorable chats on the streets so that I would remember to write about them in this report.  I’ve ended up with about 25 notes!  I’m not going to be able to write about all of them in this short report.  So, what I’m going to do is drop the whole list into this report, so you can get a feel for what I got up to on the streets for the month, and I’ll expand on some of them.  Here goes:

 

Saturday, 6th of June, in Riccarton, Corin was with me; she is new to street outreach, and she has a passion for it!  She gives out gospel tracts with pure delight in her eyes.  Such an encouragement.  Since Corin is new, I had my flipchart with me.  We started with prayer, and then we set up the chart. She mentioned, “We don’t have tracts yet”, so I turned to my bag to get some when I noticed that Corin was talking to someone.  I turned back, and a guy was standing right in front of the flip chart.  He had obviously just turned the corner and was instantly attracted by the flip chart.

 

I took control of the chat and used the flip chart, involving Corin, to take this young man through the gospel presentation.  It was like I was talking to a blank canvas, in the sense that they didn’t have any pre-conceived ideas that I had to correct.  When he heard the gospel for the first time, I got a visual reaction, which showed that it had clicked in his thinking – what a joy!  But we didn’t stop there, we moved into check questions, and very quickly it became clear that his thinking had moved to adding Jesus to good works for salvation: “Jesus does most of it, but we still have to be good to get to heaven”.  So, I went back to the gospel, and used the speeding ticket analogy: “If a friend pays your whole speeding ticket for you, how much left do you have to pay?”  “Right, none, same with Jesus, if he pays for all your sins, how much left do you have to pay in hell?”  I think the gospel re-clicked in his thinking at that point.

 

During the chat, there was a moment where a couple of tears escaped from an eye – tears?  I don’t know, but I know this young man was impacted, at the very least.  He took 2 kinds of tract, but didn’t take the Gospel of John I offered.  That chat filled me with such joy!

 

Thursday, 4th June, in Riccarton: chat with 2 Afghan girls

 

Thursday, 4th June, in Riccarton: chat with Jimmy, a teen kid walking past

 

Thursday, 4th June, in Riccarton: 4 people outside the yogurt shop: this chat was special, because 1 guy engaged in the chat and I was able to labour with him about grace (it’s amazing how long it can take for this concept to really sink in).

 

Thursday, 4th June, in Riccarton: 2 CBHS (Christchurch Boys High School)  guys at the bus stop - amazing chat.  These guys had Christian backgrounds, and we had a special 15 minutes together working through the tension of faith & works.

 

Sunday, 31st May, in the City: 2 kids - never thought about it before

 

Saturday, 30th May, in Riccarton: chat with 3 kids with a connection to Kaiapoi Baptist

 

Friday, 29th May, in the City: a young man with a Catholic background, but with a very Eastern worldview.  Hard chat, but he took a copy of John

 

Friday, 29th May, in the City: a chat with 3 girls from Parklands

 

Thursday, 28th May, in Riccarton: 17yo, Riccarton High student, had heard the gospel through YouTube, struggling with anger and anxiety, and lacking assurance.  A long chat after which I invited him to church.

 

Friday, 22nd May, in the City: 2 Mormon missionaries, long chat

 

Thursday, 21st May, in Riccarton: Asian couple - great chat.  Took a copy of John

 

Thursday, 21st May, in Riccarton: Regular Muslim we see - great follow-up chat, challenged him on how God can be just and merciful at the same time?  (Christianity has a logical answer.)

 

Saturday, 16th May, in Riccarton: 5 orthodox kids - 2 guys talking, a girl challenged, 2 guys that said nothing.  This was a great chat, where we talked about PSA and Christus Victor (atonement theories).

 

Friday, 15th May, in the City: Indian Orthopedic surgeon from Brunei.  Good deeds for heaven.  This chat was special; he took a tract, and I noticed him sitting down and reading it carefully after our brief chat.

 

Friday, 15th May, in the City: group of kids, some of whom I had talked to in Riccarton before - they showed respect

 

Friday, 15th May, in the City: 2 young men from Motuaka - great chat.

 

Friday, 15th May, in the City: Older Englishman: very resistant.

 

Sunday, 10th May in the City: Mother's Day.  slow and cold, a few tracts and a half chat before heading home

 

Saturday, 9th May in Riccarton: slowish.  Chat with people trying to avoid the truth under the banner of peace.  Another chat with a guy and his girlfriend.  He didn't like the building builder analogy.

 

Friday, 8th May, in the City: Long deep chat with a guy - took John.

 

Friday, 8th May, in the City: Chat with 2 guys cnr Colombo and Cashel

 

Thursday, 7th May in Riccarton: A long chat with an intellectual.

 

Thursday, 7th May in  Riccarton: A kid who knew my name! He talked to me 2 years ago in the city.  He didn't want to go through it again! Haha.  He said he gave the tract I gave him to his brother, who likes to collect Chick tracts!?  I gave him another to give to his brother for the collection.

 

Thursday, 7th May, in Riccarton: Guy from Papua New Guinea - became an SDA, but didn't understand the gospel, not really 'religious'.  Heard the gospel, pointed to the Bible.

 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday June 3rd 2026 from 1030-1130

Hurrah, Peace rejoined the Sunnybank team after a long gap year since their family moved from North to south to start a new way of living. It was also a great pleasure to have Ann rejoining us at Sunnybank. Peace asked for prayer to give her boldness after a long break and God answered our prayer to make her a fisher of men having many chats opportunities and even leading to chance of recommending non-beleivers to attend SIC where she is now a regular members. As for me, my focus was initially dragged to keep an eyes on Peace, and let go after she was obviously finding her feet in God's strength. I have conversation with both non-believers, Chrisitians without assurance of salvation and fair dinkum Christians. It was always a joy to serve and live a life on mission with God.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong on Tuesday JUne 2nd from 1030 - 1200

I did a breif outreach at Toowong as I had to rush to a lunch meeting with the Princiapl and Vice Principal of the Chinese Theological College Australia based in Sydney.

I caught up with a mature student from Solomom Island who claimed himseld a Christian. Upon asking the two diagnosis question. He basically have the righ answer to show him having 100$ assurance of salvation becasue of Jesus and His Sacrifsicial death on the cross alone. I manged to take a selfie with him but unfortunately, I might have pressed the wrong button that ending up without the photo taken.

Anyhow, I made several shorter chat becuse of the frequent bus schedule and had sdone for the day earlier toallow me to rush to my aforementioned lunch appointment.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday May 27th 2026 from 1030-1130

Today, teamed up with Edwin to do street outreach in Sunnybank. Edwin exceptionally had a long chat with a seekers from China who has been affiliating with a Catholic priest. So Edwin spent a long time to brief him the salvation by faith doctrine against the old tradition of Catholic biased teaching.

As for me, had a couple of good and long chat with a Taiwanese student who was approached by our team before. I did a thorough follow up recap which proved to be very useful for that guy to understand it is a common need of each and very one of this fallen human races. That Jesus is the only one to make us perfect again meaning our record of sins has been set to zero the moment we accepted Him as our Savior. Then I had another long chat with a Chinese face Filipino of Catholic background. He also failed the assurance of salvation test but was glad to have it clarified giving me a thumb up for my explanation. There were many more shorter or scattered chats but still serving God's purpose for that particular persons.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong on Tuesday May 26th from 1030 - 1200

The weather was still unstable, but as usual God stop the rain with a wet ground but Sunshine when I got to Toowong. Today was special for a couple of people from UK that I could conveniently associate with by my extensive UK experience including frequent business trip, family visit to my Sister at Oxford at that time , and finally my one odd year full time study of Master if Information System at UMIST Manchester. Actually I was led to Christ in Manchester in 1990. So, chatting with people from UK helped me build quick rapport with them.

First was an UQ student from Essex county, he is a non-believer yet he believes in God, but falling short ti comprehend the concept of triune god. He actually has extensive study of Bible, my chat with him apart from sharing first the gospel that all human needs Jesus at long as we admit we are not perfect. He is a genuine seekers having a list of question from hus bible reading. I thanks God to help him clarified many biblical questions. He from all angle would soon be ready to accept Jesus as his savor.

The other guy was in total opposite, a guy from Wales but of African background, who grew up i na background of abuse and chaos. He deems all religious are humanly founded full of corruption as such he bluntly reject to ket me share gospel with him. I anyway still was moved to connect as a equal human being counter part to exchange life experiences. God is good and he is always in control.

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 Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday May 20th 2026 from 1030-1130

The weather turned sunny finally. It was an amazing outreach. For the first time ,God moved a Chinese Girl to approach me while I had just started sharing with another Vietnamese girl sitting next to her. They do not know each other. But the Chinese girl was so eager to listen on while I share the gospel with the Vietnamese girl. It was a pity she had to leave first. As for the Vietnamese girl, she said she is now studying the Bible by her self, a sincere seekers. I shared 90 % just falling short of the final wrap up when her bus arrived. She genuinely wish to meet me next week and let pray for this to happen.

OI also approached a couples others who wer all open and receptive. Praise be to the Lord

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong on Tuesday May 19 from 1030 - 1200

It was an overcast day with intermittent scattered rain. Yet as usual, I was well protected under God's promise to be with me whenever I set oof to serve him as such, God closed the window of the sky withholding rain throughout the whole time I was serving on the street and even covering my lap swimming afterwards.

Two chats stood out. It were with an Australian born Indonesian cross breed and with a Thailand student with Indian blood. Both are non-Christians possibly muslim and Buddhist respectively, but both were open and receptive to the gospel especially the way i approach the issue of the gospel that as long as we all admit no one including ourselves are perfect, then by definition, we all have been disqualified to regain the citizenship of the heavenly kingdom. Only way is to rely on a perfect person which can only be Jesus to take our place to received the eternal death punishment. The moment we accepted Jesus as Savior, our sins are pardoned and set to zero making us a perfect and new creation to be qualified immediately to be reaccepted into His Kingdom.

God is good and is gracious to elect non-believers of other religions to be attracted to Jesus.

The message of one of the LCD screen "Own the Unknown" also resonate with God's way to move those non-believers to "own the unknown."

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